An electrical fault plunged thousands of residents, businesses and clubbers in Kingston into darkness over the weekend.

The lights went out following a power cut shortly after 3am, as revellers made their way home from nightclubs including the Hippodrome, Oceana and Bacchus.

Although power was restored after 20 minutes in the town centre, some areas were not switched back on for more than an hour.

Banquet Records manager Jon Tolley was at his Eden Street store when the power failed.

He said: "I was dropping my stuff off after DJing. It happened just after 3am for 20 minutes or so.

"I stayed and watched from the office. It was pretty chaotic as the drunk clubbers were trying to get home. Eden Kebab was selling chips by torch light!

"I'm just glad Eden Street was closed to the buses."

A spokesman from UK Power Networks said: "At 3.08am on Saturday, several thousand customers in the King’s Road area of Kingston experienced an interruption to their power supplies because of a fault on the high-voltage electricity distribution network.

"The first customers had power again within six minutes with the final customers having supplies again at 4.19am.

"We appreciate how difficult it can be to lose power and would like to apologise for the inconvenience caused by this incident."